Camp Liberty
by JoJobob
Summary: Sydney and Vaughn are sent on an interesting mission...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Across the LA Branch of the CIA, midst the crowds of groaning people, there was paperwork, bottles of Tylenol, unmet deadlines, and many angry looking people. To the agents that worked there it was just another _fun_ day at the office.

Sydney sat at her desk quietly, with her head tilted sideways. One eye was slightly squinted shut, and the tip of her tongue was sticking out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. To anyone, it would look like she was hard at work. But, if someone were to look closer they would see that the paperwork she was _supposed_ to be doing was carelessly thrown around on her desk, and she was doodling on a pad of paper.

She stopped and looked up to see if anyone was watching her, then put her head back down and continued to "work". She heaved a sigh and glanced at her watch. _Three more hours..._ She didn't see what was so fun about working at the CIA. In her opinion, the only fun about it was seeing the odd gadgets that Marshall made for their missions.

_Why couldn't I have been a teacher like I wanted to be?_ Sydney thought to herself. _Maybe then these stacks of paper wouldn't be sitting here…_

Sydney thought for a moment longer, then came to the conclusion that even if she was a teacher she'd still have stacks of papers on her desk. But that point still didn't take away the fact that she'd rather be talking to a wall than working on the mounds of paperwork she had before her.

She gazed across the rotunda, staring at the many people walk by her. She wished she would have left the CIA when she had had the chance. She sighed, her eyes falling upon Vaughn. He looked like he was trying to explain something to a junior agent. He was holding a folder in front of him, pointing at it. His eyebrows were furrowed in frustration and the many wrinkles on his forehead were in full effect. His lips were pursed, and she could tell that he was trying to keep his rising anger inside. Evidently he was trying to deal with a very _stupid_ junior agent.

Vaughn wasn't any different than any other man she had talked to recently, other than the disgusting ones she had to handle during missions. Vaughn was kind to her, said 'good luck' before she left, and gave her an occasional hug. She didn't know what it was, but something lured her to him.

She wasn't one to act on her instinctive feelings, and she kept trying to tell herself that she didn't care for him more than the CIA would allow, but somehow her emotions wouldn't listen to her brain.

When she first met him, she _hated_ him. His personality was sickening. He always wanted to 'win' their little squabbles, which he usually ended up winning anyway. It was new for her since she was always used to getting her way. Most people just sided with her just to make her shut up, and she had gotten quite comfortable with it.

It didn't take her long to realize that she was actually attracted to the men who liked to "take charge" of situations.

---

Sydney continued to doodle on a pad of paper, not really paying any attention to her surroundings. She was humming a little tune to herself, when she felt the funny sensation that she was being watched. She quickly spun around in her chair and nearly knocked Vaughn off of his feet.

Vaughn hid his embarrassment and cleared his throat.

"What were you doing?" she asked with a laugh.

"Watching to see how long it'd take you to notice me standing behind you." he snickered. 

After she smiled and nodded, he grinned and straightened his tie nervously. She looked at him expectantly, as if to ask if there was another reason he was there. "There's some important meeting we have to go to in five minutes." he said, throwing in a little wiggle of the eyebrows and a knee-weakening grin. She knew he wasn't entirely serious, because he made quotation marks with his fingers as he said "important". Sydney just nodded and smiled. Vaughn nodded, and then began to walk away.

Once he was out of her sight she got up and sighed. She thought of the way he had smiled at her, and she nearly turned into a puddle of Sydney right then and there, until Weiss pretended to bump her with his elbow, knocking her out of La-La Land.

"Day dreaming about Vaughn again, eh?" he chuckled.

"What? No." She quickly muttered, patches of red suddenly turning up in her cheeks.

Weiss gave her a friendly pat on the back. "I was only joking, Syd," he said, and then walked on.

Sydney stood in the center of the rotunda dumbfounded. She knew Weiss was not "just joking" because she happened to know Weiss better than he thought she did. Then she also realized that Weiss knowing any secret, was probably the worst thing that could ever happen to a person. Weiss's mouth was like a pocket with a hole torn in it.

_Only God knows why he's working for a spy agency…_ She scoffed to herself, then went on her way to the meeting room. When she opened the door, she was faced with a room full of eager, young looking trainees. They all had apprehensive looks on their faces as if they were expecting some spectacular event to take place.

Giving them a weak smile, Sydney whisked past them and took a seat by Vaughn. Once she plopped down in the leather chair, she took the manila folder from in front of her and opened it up.

One page had a 'fact sheet' and then the next one had some names on it. She didn't quite understand it at first, so she pretended to look fascinated as she read through the documents. After a few moments she looked up to see if anyone was watching her.

Luckily, only a couple of trainees were looking at her, and the rest were staring at Kendall in expectance. She had to hold back a snort of laughter when she saw them all looking so excited. It almost made her want to scream at them for _wanting_ to work at the CIA.

She thought of it as a continuous game of "cat and mouse". Because all they would do was chase a terrorist, catch a terrorist, then have them escape with some valuable information.

_Don't forget the meetings…_ She reminded herself. The meetings were possibly the most _boring_ event at the CIA that they would have to experience. And they only happened six times a week… She really didn't know how the trainees made it look so exciting.

_Just wait two more hours, then you'll see…_ She thought to herself.

---

"Agent Bristow," Kendall greeted Sydney, with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "How nice of you to join us."

At first, she was prompted to think he had some evil mission planned for her, but she decided not to jump to conclusions _just_ yet.

"As you may have noticed on this list," Kendall said, holding up a list of names. "There are three names highlighted; Miranda Peterson, Dominique Vinci, and Alexander Hunt. They are possible threats to the CIA."

Kendall glanced around the room, making sure that everyone was awake and paying close attention. He pressed a small button, and the face of a young man flashed up on the wall. "This man is...or was, Scott Miller." he said, "He worked at the summer camp, Camp Liberty.

"He contacted the CIA two weeks ago, offering some information about an uprising group of terrorists. He said he was 'one' of them. When I met with him, he told me that all of the terrorists worked at Camp Liberty, and they were hiding a weapon somewhere within the camp's proximity.

"He was young and inexperienced..." Kendall sighed, "He told us that his cover would be blown if he stayed here any longer, so we were forced to let him leave. But before he did, he told me to have an agent meet with him at a downtown café at a certain time so he could tell us more.

"A couple of days ago we assigned one of our agents to meet with him. He was followed... and not long after our agent was identified as CIA, Miller was shot and killed by a sniper.

"With his dying breath, Miller told us some very valuable information about the camp, including the three agents' real names.

"Sydney, Vaughn, your job is to find Peterson, Vinci, and Hunt's aliases within the camp, what organization they are working for, and what the weapon is, and what it's going to be used _for_. _And_, if possible, I want the weapon itself."

"How do we approach this?" Sydney asked. _It's not as if I can pull off being a thirteen year old._

"Actually, you and Agent Vaughn will both apply for the position of camp counselors." he said with a slight smile.

_Oh no,_ Sydney groaned to herself. Sydney didn't want to act childish, but he _had_ to be kidding her.

"But Sir, that's the whole entire summer." Vaughn cut in.

"--Or until the two of you find information on Peterson, Vinci, and Hunt." Kendall corrected him. "And yes, I have gone over the possibility of it taking more than just a couple of weeks. I understand that when you're there, you are actually counselors. You _will_ have to act mature," he eyed Vaughn and Sydney for a moment. "And you will have to be a role model - all while on the job.

"When your campers are sent to sleep, you two will sneak out and meet somewhere secluded. You will need to plan what to do each day. If I were you, start researching the employees that have been there for about two or three years, and probably the 'higher ups' of the camp group.

"You need to get close to them. Make friends, then research them. Go through their belongings when they're busy elsewhere, go through their private computers...look for _anything_ suspicious... And when you do, contact us. Obviously you can't call the CIA, so you'll need to use some of the gadgets Marshall has made. He will give and explain to you the devices needed while you're on the mission."

_No duh..._ Sydney scoffed. _I know how to do my job..._

"And, one last thing..." Kendall added. "You two will need to be _insanely_ careful about what you say and where you say it. They will most likely be expecting an agent within the camp, and if you reveal your cover, you will be putting the lives of children in trouble."

Sydney sighed. _How do they know I don't hate kids?_ Of course, Sydney was only being facetious and she did love kids. She just wasn't very intent on giving up her entire summer. She decided she just needed a little bit of time to think about it.

She glanced over at Vaughn. He was nodding his head as if he was looking forward to the mission. Sydney looked at Kendall with a horrified expression, clearly letting him know her feelings about her whole summer going… _bye bye_.

"If the two of you aren't willing to do this mission, we can get someone else to do it." Kendall said with a sneer.

"No, we'll do it," Vaughn said, looking from Sydney to Kendall.

Kendall smiled in triumph, then dismissed them all.

_I guess my mind has been made up for me…_ Sydney groaned. _I had better be getting paid a lot for this..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Camp Liberty, _a place to make friends, have fun, and go on adventures!_

Sydney lay on her bed reading the Camp Liberty brochure. The cover had been decorated with the camp logo and a couple pictures of the staff from the previous year. She studied the faces on the folded pamphlet, trying to determine which of the staff members would look more like a terrorist. She sighed and rolled over onto her stomach. _Looks can be deceiving._ She only needed to look in the mirror to remember that.

She let out a yawn and stretched out her aching arms. She scooted over a bit and placed her head on the fluffy pillow. Her eyes gradually slipped shut, leaving the world and all her worries behind. Like any other plans she had in life, her nap was short-lived, when Francie burst through her bedroom door.

"Syd!"

"Huh?" she asked, prying her eyes open. "What?"

"I just found out; my restaurant is making profits!" she cried out with a giddy smile. "Now I'm _really_ glad I didn't fire my chef." she laughed.

Sydney smiled, rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up. "That's great, Fran," she said, leaning over to give Francie a hug. She lay back again, watching Francie glow with happiness.

"After only a couple months, too!" Francie added.

"Yeah, you're right!" Sydney said once she realized it had only been a few short months ago when Francie had come to her, explaining her new idea to open a restaurant.

"What's this?" Francie asked curiously, picking up the Camp Liberty information sheet.

"What's what?" Sydney feigned innocence.

"This," she said, waving the piece of paper in front of Sydney's face.

"Oh, nothing..." Sydney mumbled, swiping it out of Francie's hands and throwing it on the pile of papers she had carelessly left sitting out.

Francie gave her a skeptical look. _Oh great,_ Sydney thought to herself.

"Were you planning on going there or something?" she asked.

Sydney sat up again, throwing her blanket over the paperwork and files she had lying at the foot of her bed. "My boss handed those out to everyone today at work... I guess they need some help this summer with counselors." she shrugged. "But I'm not sure if he meant--"

As soon as Francie heard the words 'help, summer, and counselors' her eyes lit up. "Syd!" she squealed. "This could be the chance we've been waiting for!"

"For... What?" Sydney asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, you know how you've been busy with the bank for the past few months and all that..." she said, rolling her eyes as she jabbered on. "I just thought it's that big chance to make up for lost time."

"What do you mean?" Sydney asked.

Francie threw her hair back with a flick of her hand and scoffed. "I just meant that we haven't been as close as we were back in college... I mean, back then we did this kind of thing! Remember Camp Challenge?"

"You mean, 'do I remember you making out with one of the other counselors?'" Sydney laughed.

"That only happened once," Francie said, holding up her hands in defense. "And you know you wanted to kiss him too, I just took action."

Sydney scoffed as a response, and stood up. "Francie, this is the whole _entire_ summer; what about your restaurant?"

"Pshaw," she waved her hand. "I don't do much there anyway...at least not anything that my assistant manager can't do. Plus, Will can always take care of stuff."

"Whatever," Sydney laughed.

_Beep beep beep_...

"The bank?" Francie asked when Sydney found her beeper buried underneath her fluffy comforter.

She gave an apologetic nod. "Sorry,"

"Think about it, Syd..."

"Fran..."

Francie waggled her index finger in front of Sydney's face. "Don't 'Fran' me," she chided. "We're going. End of story."

"Francie, I really gotta go..." Sydney mumbled, successfully avoiding further discussion about Camp Liberty. "I need to take a shower."

---

_Why me?_ Sydney asked herself. She knew she would have had to talk to Francie about the camp eventually, but she was planning to have some sort of speech figured out so somehow Francie wouldn't _want_ to go with her. _What is Kendall going to say about this?_ It wasn't as if she could just go tell Francie about the CIA. Will already knew about her true occupation, so he wouldn't make as big of an issue about the mission as Francie had.

After successfully passing the CIA's security, Sydney sauntered into the rotunda, plopping down in a vacant chair next to Vaughn's desk. "So?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest. She decided that she would discuss the Francie situation with Vaughn before she did with Kendall.

Vaughn grinned and leaned back in his leather chair. "I just called you in so we could ...discuss the mission."

"Wow, good thing." Sydney laughed, letting out a little breath of relief. "Francie discovered this," she said, holding up the camp brochure.

Vaughn cringed. "And... Now, she wants to go?" he predicted with a sardonic half smile.

"Yeah," Sydney scoffed. "I love her to pieces but I don't want her to be dragged into this... Not like Will was."

"I know," Vaughn sympathized. "But you never know, we would have just as many other people paying attention to us as much as she would, so what difference would it make?" 

"Are you actually encouraging me to bring Francie into this mission?" Sydney asked, her voice rising along with her temper. 

Vaughn raised his eyebrows. "Well, it's my opinion." he shrugged. "We would just have to be a little bit more careful - and considering the situation we're already in, I don't think she'd be too much of a risk. Plus, we're going to be doing most of our 'spy' stuff at night."

Sydney nodded. She wasn't sure why, but when Vaughn said that they would be spying mostly at _night_, the hairs on her skin stood up. She rubbed her bare arms and looked around the rotunda. Suddenly, the whole mission was starting to sound _a lot_ more appealing. "Anything else?" she asked.

"Yeah, actually." he said, "We're going in under aliases. Lucky for you, your alias is Sydney Parker, and I'm Vaughn Bennett." 

"_Vaughn_," she laughed.

"Yeah, I thought that it'd be smart since it would be rather difficult to explain to a bunch of children why you call me 'Vaughn'. Plus, if we messed up even once, we'd most likely be under suspicion."

"Logical..." Sydney nodded. "What about Francie?"

"What about her?" he asked.

"Won't she be suspicious that my last name is different?"

"They'll only use our first names there, won't they?"

Sydney chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. "I guess so," she decided. "And we could always just joke around with it and pretend that they made a mistake with my name or something..."

Vaughn nodded in agreement. "Oh yeah," he said, handing her another stack of forms. "Here is the staff registration form. They still need more counselors for this summer, so we're in luck. You need to fill it in by tomorrow, and then we will go to the camp office and turn them in ourselves. We will have to submit to a drug test, and be interviewed... I hope that's not a problem?"

"No," Sydney said. "Just give me a call tomorrow."

Vaughn nodded and watched as Sydney looked over the registration form. Her brown eyes were darting over the page as she quickly scanned over it. She took a deep breath and tucked a couple stray hairs behind her ear - something he learned that she did when she was nervous. She looked up and saw that he was staring at her. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and glanced around. "What?" she asked, her cheeks turning a light shade of red.

"Nothing," Vaughn said quickly. He smiled and pulled himself closer to his desk so that he could begin to look over the form too.

"Oh, Vaughn?" Sydney asked, glancing up from the papers. When Vaughn nodded as a gesture that he was listening, she went on. "Do I tell Kendall about Francie?"

Vaughn thought for a second, and then shook his head a little bit. "Actually, I wouldn't tell Kendall if I were you-"

Sydney nodded and started to stand up, right when another voice interrupted Vaughn, "Don't tell me _what_, Agent Vaughn?" Kendall asked, placing a hand on Vaughn's shoulder.

"Uh-" he stuttered. "It's-"

"Well?" Kendall said, tapping his foot impatiently.

Sydney and Vaughn looked at each other nervously. She decided that it was probably best that Kendall would hear about Francie tagging along in their mission from her, rather than the off chance that she'd screw up the mission. _Then if that happened, I'd be in even **more** trouble..._

"Kendall?" Sydney interjected. "It has to do with my friend Francie.

"We live together... and she found the Camp Liberty brochure and now she wants to go with me. Mr. Vaughn was just telling me--"

"Absolutely not." Kendall said firmly, folding his arms across his chest, trying to give an air of intimidation to the two agents.

"But Sir," Vaughn started to say, before being shut up by Kendall's glare.

"Do I need to remind you how dangerous this mission already is?"

"No Sir," Vaughn said obediently, bowing his head slightly.

_Coward._ Sydney laughed at Vaughn. He was so devoted to the CIA that it was almost sickening; it was the one thing she loathed about him.

Sydney cleared her throat a little bit and continued to tell Kendall what she was trying to say before. "I was trying to tell you a moment ago," she paused, "that it wouldn't be too much of a risk as it is already. I mean, we're already surrounded by a camp full of kids, and who knows how many staff members... What would one more be? And plus, she could help me with my alias; I could say that I was going to be a counselor for the summer with my best friend Francie."

Sydney bit her bottom lip between her teeth, eagerly waiting for his response. Kendall was a lot like Jack in many ways; the expression on his face was one that no one could understand. You couldn't tell whether he was angry, happy, sad, or thinking about something.

"That would be _very_ dangerous." Kendall said uneasily, his resolve slowly deteriorating.

Sydney looked down at her feet for a moment before responding. "I know,"

"If you do this, you need to make sure you two don't do anything that would compromise the mission, near her." he said, "And, if she gets in the way, you will need to contact us so we can extract her.

"Other than that," he sighed, "Unfortunately, I can only agree. I'd rather take the chances, compared to tell her about your real occupation."

"I suppose..." Sydney sighed, getting up from the chair she'd been sitting on.

Kendall sighed and nodded at the two. "Oh... and Marshall is waiting to show you the devices you will need on the mission."

Sydney and Vaughn nodded simultaneously and Kendall left. Vaughn looked around and grinned. "So, what do you think?" he asked with a lighthearted smile.

"About what?" Sydney asked.

"This mission," he said nonchalantly.

"I think that this mission is insane!" she laughed. "But it will be my first 'vacation' in about eight years, and I always liked summer camp when I was a kid, so I think it'll be fun."

"Wow," he blinked. "Wait, how are you going to explain to Francie that you just magically got three and a half months off of work?"

Sydney thought for a moment. She bit her bottom lip and shrugged. "I don't know. I'll probably just say that I'm using my vacation days that I've had saved up for the past eight years." she said sarcastically.

"That would work," he laughed. "Well, we had better go talk to Marshall."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Sydney followed Vaughn when he got up and walked across the room to Marshall's crammed office. As soon as he opened the clear glass door, he was met with mounds of clutter, consisting of anything from an old bike wheel, to a cell phone.

"Marshall?" Vaughn called out, trying to find the cause of the mess.

"Hold on a second!" they heard a voice come from behind a pile. Marshall appeared seconds later, shifting objects around his desk, looking for something he seemed to have misplaced.

Vaughn and Sydney both stood waiting in his office, with their arms crossed. Vaughn's thoughts wandered off to how their mission could end up to be quite a fun one, in which he hoped to learn more about the _real_ Sydney Bristow. She, on the other hand, was looking from one object that was carelessly thrown into piles of junk, to another, marveling at the fact that no civilian would guess that the "make-up compact" she had used on missions before, was really a password decoder.

"Ah hah!" Marshall cried out happily, pulling a black bag out from under a couple of other normal looking items. "I have a lot of things for you guys this summer," he smiled mischievously, patting the bag.

Sydney looked at him anxiously, waiting to see the new op. tech. She always loved seeing the new things Marshall could create. Everyone else seemed to take him for granted, just because he had a slight problem talking without going off topic at least seven times.

Marshall opened the bag and pulled out a regular Sonicare© toothbrush. He started with his usual introduction. "See, it looks like a regular electric toothbrush," he said, waving it around a little bit. "But it's really a recorder.

"I know what you're thinking, 'why would we need a recorder in a toothbrush?' but its just so the CIA has something to do. We thought it best that there'd be a recorder anywhere possible."

Vaughn nodded with a smile, urging him to continue. "This is a flashlight." Marshall said with a jittery smile. "And personally, its my favorite.

"This is just for a worst case scenario though," he warned. "If you turn it this way," he pointed the end with the light on it at them, " - it's a light - " then he turned it the other way, " - And this way, it's a gun. So if you get into any serious trouble, you can just turn it around and go 'bang bang'! and everything is okay; well, not really 'okay' because you just shot someone, but -"

Sydney let out a small grin, which didn't go unnoticed by Vaughn. "Which one of us gets that?" he asked cautiously.

"Both of you," he said simply. "I managed to make two of almost everything."

"Oh, okay." he said, glancing over to Sydney, who still had a grin on her face.

Marshall pulled out item after item. After explaining how to use the flashlight properly, he took out two watches, both styled differently. They were to be used as cameras and recording devices. Sydney smiled when she found that he had more in store for them. He kept taking out more items as time passed; some of them included little 'throwaway cameras', untraceable bugs that were disguised as simple objects that no one would suspect, mini-flashlights that were styled as key chains, sunglasses, paperclips, a necklace, and even a button that matched her coat.

"So, once you guys start packing, just come in and we'll get this stuff sorted out for you." he finished. "Just make sure not to use these items in a way that would reveal yourself, or make any of the people suspect you, okay?"

Sydney and Vaughn nodded and Marshall continued. "We've been checking up on the camp's schedule, and luckily, they still have about four or five openings for counselors." he paused for a moment, then picked up a folder off his desk. "Sydney, you need to go up there tomorrow to have an interview, and Vaughn, you'll go the next day.

"Oh yeah, and Mr. Weiss has more information, so you two need to talk to him before tomorrow."

"Weiss is part of this?" Sydney asked.

"Well we're all a _part_ of it," he said quickly. "But he's basically going to be your guys' handler for this mission. Obviously you can't call, or else that'd kind of give away your position, and that wouldn't be pretty, so when you need to talk to him, just use this watch - " he grabbed one of the watches out of the bag, " - and contact us. You just click this button here," he said, popping off the cover of the watch, revealing a little red button, "then put the cover back on and speak into it and it'll relay the message to Weiss.

"And I know this is a lot to take in all at once, so if you guys have questions about any of the items I've shown you, just refer back to this, uh, folder." he said, handing them each a peach-colored folder.

Marshall said a quick "Goodbye," and gave them a hesitant smile, then went back to tinkering with some random article behind his desk.

---  
**Weiss's desk.**

Sydney started to dawdle over to Weiss's desk a couple minutes after she left Marshall's office. She walked right up behind him, and he didn't even realize she was there. She leaned over a bit and saw that he was sorting out his playing cards, or more likely planning out some ridiculously stupid card trick to try to impress one of the woman agents from the office. _He must not know anything about women, if he thinks doing card tricks is going to get him one._ She laughed silently.

"What'cha doing?" she asked in a silly voice.

"G-ah!" he jumped, his cards flying everywhere on his desk. "You scared me."

"I know, I have that effect on people." she said acerbically, then continued, "Marshall said you had some things to tell Vaughn and I about the mission?"

Weiss nodded. "We just need Vaughn here so I don't have to repeat myself." he said, noticing that Vaughn was making his way over to them. He made a lame attempt in covering his cards by spreading some papers across his desk. "I bet _you're_ excited for this mission, eh?" he whispered before Vaughn graced them with his presence.

Sydney opened and closed her mouth a couple times, forcing herself not to say anything so that she wouldn't embarrass herself even more. "Cat got your tongue?" Weiss laughed, then turned to Vaughn.

"So?" Vaughn asked, ignoring the comment Weiss had made.

Weiss looked up at Vaughn, then to Sydney. "As you now know, I'm going to be your _handler_. Once a week I'll be expecting a message from one of you, preferably on Saturday evenings. I know you two get tired of hearing this, but you will need to tell me what's gone on that week and anything suspicious that you've seen.

"Now, we've gone over that..." Weiss said, "Sydney, we checked into the camp's archives, and tomorrow there aren't any scheduled interviews, so we'd like you to go in. Vaughn, you can go the day after tomorrow, so it will be less suspicious."

"Okay," Sydney shrugged. "But how do I know that they'll accept me?"

"Good question." Weiss laughed. "The man that should be there tomorrow, his name is Robert..."

Sydney let out a loud sigh. "And you think if I'm charming enough, I'll get the job?" she laughed.

Weiss shrugged and opened a drawer to his desk, pulling out a box of donuts. "Pretty much, yeah."

"What if I don't get the job?" she asked. 

"Chances are slim," Weiss said with a full mouth, a couple of donut crumbs spilling onto his suit. "There's only two more weeks, and they need about 5 counselors; in the past, they've had all of their counselors a month in advance.

"Plus," he said, wiping his mouth. "I have the standard copy of questions that they use while giving an interview, and the answers that they'd like to hear."

He shut the drawer to his desk then shuffled around in a disorderly manner, trying to find the questions. He grabbed a couple of the papers that he had distributed across his desk, then handed them to Sydney. "Here they are. Just... Memorize them and make it seem like you're sincere with the answers that you give. I wouldn't be too exact with the answers or they'll assume that an agency sent you, so be a little bit vague on a couple of the questions."

"Sounds good," she nodded. "Thank you."

"Alright," Weiss said, turning his attention to Vaughn. "You'll need..."

---  
**The next day. **

Sydney rubbed her eyes lightly after she clambered out of her car. She had been driving for about three hours, and even though jet lag didn't seem to affect her (most of the time), a couple hours in a car seemed to draw out all the energy she had that morning. She adjusted the tank top she was wearing, making sure that it was as low as she could without looking indecent. She let out a yawn and started walking up to the front office of Camp Liberty.

From the first building she saw, she could tell that it was a nice camp. The actual camp was supposedly about a mile past the front office, due to privacy for the staff that lived there year 'round. She smiled resolutely, determined to get the position as a counselor. She pulled the glass door open and walked in, the sound of a bell tinkling somewhere within the store.

"Can I help you, Ma'am?" a voice broke the silence.

Sydney turned to her left to see a man sitting in a big leather chair, behind a desk that was covered with countless manila folders. He had brown hair and blue eyes, he was wearing a pair of oval shaped glasses, and he had a pencil behind one ear. She gave the man a smile and quickly read the name tag he was wearing - _Robert_.

"My name is Sydney Parker, I'm here to see if there was any openings for the counselor position this summer." she said with a heartwarming smile, sticking her hand out to greet the man.

"Actually, yes." Robert said while shaking her hand. "I was actually trying to recall the phone numbers of a couple of the locals who took the girls' counselor position last year. We're still short about 4 girls, and 3 guys, and the camp is already filled."

"Okay," she said, taking a seat in front of his desk. "So what should I do? I took these order forms off your guys' website, and filled them out, but I was thinking there was a little more to it than that." she laughed, handing him the papers that Weiss had given her to fill out, with Sydney Parker's information and history.

"Just a little," Robert let out a chuckle. "We'd actually like to interview you sometime, and if you end up being part of our staff this summer, you would be submitted to a drug test, a background check, and a two week training period on how to deal with the children in different situations and such."

Sydney nodded and tucked some stray hair behind her ear. "Would right now be a good time for an interview, or are you busy?"

Robert glanced around his desk for a moment, then looked up at Sydney's sweet, smiling face. "I think I can fit in some time." he winked.

---

Two hours, a drug test, and many questions later, Sydney walked out of the camp almost positive that she was accepted. Robert seemed to have taken to her, and she almost laughed aloud at how obvious he had shown it. As she left, he told her that he'd put in a good word for her.

When Rob, as he wanted her to call him, asked her for a telephone number to get in contact with her, she was reminded of what Weiss had told her a couple minutes before she left. She was to give him a cell phone number, which was registered under Sydney's alias, and it had numbers to various aliases who were supposedly "friends" of Sydney Parker.

Sydney looked at her own cell phone, which she had conveniently forgotten to bring along with her to the interview, and noticed that Weiss left her a message, telling her to come into the CIA when she got back.

Just as she drove into the CIA parking lot, her new phone started to ring. She glimpsed at the caller ID but didn't recognize the number. "Hello?" she answered.

"Hi, Sydney, this is _Rob_,"

"Oh hi, Rob." she said politely, "What's up? Is something wrong?" she stopped and leaned against her car.

"I was just calling to tell you that we've looked over your forms, and I discussed it with the camp director, and your application was accepted." 

Sydney smiled to herself. "Oh, thank you so much, Rob." she said in a sickeningly sweet voice that was not her own. "I guess I'll see you in a couple days for training!"

Rob was proving to be a very desperate man. Sydney could tell that he was excited for her to come back to camp, but if things went the way she wanted them to, he wouldn't be anywhere near her at the camp. He had definitely added a couple questions while giving her the interview, with such things as "Are you currently dating anyone?" and his excuse was that it might cause problems with the camp if she did. She found no reasoning with his explanation, but accepted it instead of complaining, because he most likely was going to get her a position at camp.

After she scribbled down all of the information she headed to Security so she could go inform Weiss of how the interview had gone. She was subconsciously trying to avoid Vaughn for some reason. She didn't know why she did it, because hiding generally wasn't something Sydney Bristow did.

_It's not like I won't spend enough time with him at camp..._ She kept telling herself.

She shook the thoughts from her overactive mind, and trailed off to Weiss's crammed little desk that was placed in the far corner of the rotunda. He smiled and minimized a game of Solitaire on his computer. He smiled innocently and looked up.

"I'm in," she said with a smug smile, crossing her arms over her chest.

"That was fast," Weiss laughed. "You must have done some nice flirting," he said, before swiveling around in his chair to face his desk.

She rolled her eyes and let out a loud sigh. "What did you need me for?"

"I just wanted to see how the interview went..." he rambled off.

"Couldn't you have saved me the time, _and_ gas, to just call?" she asked with an annoyed tone. Weiss started to say something, but she cut him off, "You know, my monthly phone bill isn't _nearly_ as much as I pay for gas each month."

"You wouldn't have minded coming in if Vaughn called you." Weiss pouted playfully.

Sydney ignored his comment. "So I can go?" 

"I'm not your keeper," Weiss laughed, then turned his chair around so he could resume playing Internet Solitaire. 

---  
**The next day.**

Sydney spent at least three hours scrambling around her apartment looking for clothes and other random items that she would need over the summer. She had managed to pack two suitcases full of supplies. She had one for all of the CIA equipment that Marshall had given her, and another one for clothes; she wasn't even finished packing yet.

When she got back from the CIA the day before, Francie immediately started jabbering on how she was going to go to Camp Liberty the next day, to get an interview. Sydney laughed at how she was already _completely_ packed for camp, when she didn't even know if she had been accepted yet.

Sydney heard the door slam, and the sound of Francie humming drifted through her open door. "I take it the interview went well?" She laughed.

"I think so," Francie grinned. "The lady there was really nice; I think I made a good impression..."

"That's great!" Sydney said as she plopped a couple pairs of jeans into another suitcase.

Francie sat down on the edge of Sydney's bed, watching her friend scuttle around the room, emptying her rooms' contents into her suitcases. Sydney looked up, and saw that she had a grin on her face. "What?"

"Nothing... I just think that this summer is going to be a lot of fun." she smiled happily, then got up from her bed and strolled out of her room with a mischievous smile.

She shook her head and continued to pack. Finally, Sydney flopped down onto her bed, sighing with relief, at the fact that she was almost finished packing. She heard the phone ring somewhere from within the apartment, but she was so drained that she just didn't care. Her eyes were slowly drifting shut, when Francie came barging into her room. "Phone!" she said, throwing the phone down onto her bed, dangerously close to her head. "I think its someone from the bank."

Sydney made sure that Francie was well out of hearing-range before she answered the phone. "What?" she asked crankily, not feeling up to talking with Weiss at the moment.

"I see you're in a good mood," Vaughn said with a hearty chuckle.

"Oh, hey..." Sydney blushed. "What's up?"

Vaughn paused for a moment, then continued. "Well, I just got back from camp. I think I met Francie..."

_That explains a lot..._ Sydney laughed to herself. When Francie met a guy, she'd get giddy and then she'd start to act stupid, even if he didn't ask her out. She seemed to take the fact that if a man opened a door for her or said something nice, then he was the one she was going to fall in love with, marry, and have beautiful children with... But, that was Francie for you.

"That's... nice..." she said slowly. "She didn't get all crazy on you, did she?"

Vaughn cleared his throat a little bit. "Well, not really... But she did seem to like staring."

"I'll be sure to mention that to her." she laughed. "How did it go?"

"I think it went well," he said confidently. "The woman there said that they needed a couple more male counselors, so I'd most likely be accepted. She said she'd call as soon as their administrators talked with her and looked over my application."

"Looks like we're really going to do this," she said, stifling a yawn.

"Yeah, it's kind of scary." Vaughn sighed. "I have to leave my dog with Weiss for three and a half months - and believe me, last time I did that, Donovan gained about 10 pounds."

"Poor Donovan," Sydney laughed, adding the fact that Vaughn's dog's name was Donovan, to her mental records. "Well, I'm dead tired, and if we're going to leave for camp in two days, I need to get my rest so I can finish packing."

"Alright," Vaughn agreed. "I'll talk to you later."

Once she hung up the phone, she flopped back onto her bed. She was going to be near _Vaughn_ for three and a half months.

She couldn't wait.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Two days would not come quickly enough for Sydney. Right after she got off the phone with Vaughn, she quickly finished packing her last suitcase. With all the needed materials packed, she flopped onto her bed and let out an exhausted sigh. She shut her eyes and was about to fall asleep, but like any other time, the phone started to ring. 

"Hello?" she asked sharply, not caring that she sounded like she was about to kill someone.

"_Hey_ Syd," Weiss's voice floated through.

"_Hi_ Eric," she said sarcastically. "I'll see you tomorrow at three. You know, at the _meeting_ you assigned so that you wouldn't have to keep calling me like this."

She then hung up the phone and rolled over.

---

Sydney and Vaughn sat at a big table in the conference room watching Weiss thumb through some papers. Once he finally found the sheet he was looking for he handed one to each of them. "So," Weiss drawled out. "As you know, I'm now your guys' handler. I get to boss you around and all that great stuff." he gave them a mischievous grin and continued.

"I know that you guys both know this stuff..." he rolled his eyes, referring to the paper that they were going over. "But, Kendall and your father-" he said, looking pointedly at Sydney, "-thought it was something that might be necessary to go over again.

"Okay... Well, they thought it was _most_ important that I go over rule number five." Weiss said with a wicked smile.

"Weiss..." Vaughn said warningly.

Weiss ignored him and continued on reading. "Two agents within the same division and/or department should not be romantically involved with one another. It is a risk to the mission and clouds your judgment in any given situation." Weiss looked from Sydney to Vaughn, not at all surprised to see that they both were glaring at him. "All 'participants' of said ... promiscuous activities will cease to work at the CIA if discovered."

"Hey, these weren't _my_ orders." he said with his hands up in defense.

Vaughn seemed to find a humorous outlook on the whole situation, and gave a comment that even made Sydney crack a smile. "It said 'If discovered' so that means we _can_, but we just can't get caught; I found a loophole!"

"What else did you need to tell us?" Sydney asked with a half smile. She needed to get away from Weiss - _fast_ - before the urge to punch him became overwhelming.

"Uh..." he thought for a second.

_Why... Why, why, why?_ Sydney thought to herself, _Did Kendall have to choose Weiss to be our handler?_ She knew it was silly, but whenever Eric had a questioning look on his face he reminded her of Patrick from the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants. _And that's what I get for spending the one day I have off, at home watching television with Francie._

"Marshall wanted me to make sure you guys had all of your gear... So here's a check list." he handed them both a sheet of paper. "Just bring it home and make sure you packed it all."

Sydney quickly scanned through the paper and handed it back to Weiss. "I have everything."

Weiss gave her a skeptical look, grinned, and took the paper. "Don't come whining to me when you forgot something..."

They all stood together quietly for a couple of moments as Vaughn went through the paper and mentally checked certain items off of the list. Sydney tried to avoid looking at Vaughn very much so Weiss wouldn't wink at her and wiggle his eyebrows as if she was drooling over him. Once he finally finished reading it over he folded it up and stuck it in one of the front pockets of his suit.

Weiss cleared his throat and began to speak, "Well, as you both know, tomorrow is the day all the counselors meet... Then, two and a half weeks from now the campers will come for the summer. In between the time you meet the others, and the campers come, you'll be in a two week training course for counselors." He looked at them and continued, "All they really do there is teach you how to react to certain situations..."

"So when do we leave?" Sydney asked. "It's not exactly a short car ride there."

"I checked in," Vaughn spoke up. "The man I spoke to said that it's okay if we come early. They can just show us where we'll be staying and we can tour the camp and get to know where everything is. It'll give us a good chance to do some reconnaissance work."

"Okay," she said, "I guess I'll leave tonight with Francie then. Does six o'clock sound good?"

Vaughn nodded. "And I'll go later on so we don't get there at the same time."

"Okay," Weiss peeped in, "Just remember, _every_ Saturday you make contact with me to tell the CIA what's going on... we can start doing profile checks."

"Don't worry, we won't forget about you." Vaughn said with a snigger. "We'll contact you when we arrive at camp."

"Don't get caught!" Weiss shouted out as the two left the meeting room.

Sydney and Vaughn just shook their heads and continued walking.

---  
**Camp**

"I can't believe we're actually doing this!" Francie squealed as Sydney pulled into the Camp Liberty parking lot.

"Neither can I..." Sydney said with a laugh.

"Lets get out stuff out of the trunk," Francie said with excitement.

She quickly got out of Sydney's car and treaded over to the back end. _Obviously she got more sleep than I did last night..._ Sydney groaned to herself. She popped the trunk and heaved herself out of the car. After hours of driving, her back was just a _bit_ stiff and she wasn't to keen on lugging her three suitcases clear across the camp.

Francie pulled a couple suitcases out of the back of the car, and set them on the ground. She looked around and spotted movements from behind the front office door. "Hey Syd, I'm going to go sign us in and tell them that we're here."

Sydney nodded and grabbed another suitcase. She sat down on one of them and waited for Francie to return. It only took about two minutes before Francie came running back out with the camp director and Rob, the man who had given her an interview. She busied herself with grabbing her bags out of the back seat of the car.

"Ah, hello Sydney!" Rob said warmly.

"Hey Rob," she said with a smile.

Rob gazed at her until the camp director spoke up. "I'm Frank Delanco, Rob gave me a wonderful report on you, so I only expect the best." He shook her hand lightly and instructed Rob to lead the two of them to their cabins. He nodded to Sydney and Francie and walked back into the front building.

"Well, the camp is back there," he said, pointing his index finger in the general direction next to the office building. The road leading to it was blocked by a gate, but other than that, the surrounding area looked fairly lax in the area of security. Rob shifted his feet and scratched the back of his head. "The campers all meet here," he waved his hand around, indicating the parking lot, "they get their cabin assignments and counselor, then they take our bus back to camp."

Francie looked around and let out a broad smile. "This place is so beautiful..."

Rob grinned and started walking over to their bags. "And that isn't even half of it." he said. "You should see the lake when the sun is setting."

"Can we?" she asked excitedly.

"Actually, I need to show you two where you'll be staying." he said, then selected two of Sydney's bags and nodded for them to follow him to a jeep that had **CAMP LIBERTY** printed on the side of it. He set the bags in the back and turned to the two of them, taking some of the luggage they were carrying. "But I can show you the lake once we're done.

"The camp here is rather large and Frank doesn't really like cars being driven back there too often so each of the counselors are given a four-wheeler to drive from place to place."

"_Sweet_," Francie whispered to Sydney.

Rob looked from Sydney to Francie and cleared his throat. "Although, neither of you will get to drive until Counselor Training is over..." Francie let out a little huff and looked at Sydney, who was grinning. "But not to worry, they're not difficult to learn how to use and I'm sure you both will pass with flying colors."

"Thanks," Francie grumbled, and left to go get the rest of the bags.

Sydney laughed under her breath as her friend stalked off. _She barely passed her drivers test, I don't know how they expect her to drive a four-wheeler..._

"Is she always like that?" Rob asked with a half smile.

"Pretty much," she shrugged. "She doesn't do too well on motorized vehicles."

"Ah, I see..."

Francie came back a moment later, and pushed the last two bags into his arms. "There," she said.

Sydney shook her head. "He's not like Will... You can't just treat him like crap and expect him to take it," she whispered to Francie as Rob put the last of the bags in the back of the jeep. "Remember, we're here the _entire_ summer."

"Okay, get in!" Rob hollered back at them, hopping into the driver's seat.

Francie rolled her eyes and muttered '_fine_' under her breath as Sydney stared at her.

"Good girl, just as I taught you." Sydney said, sticking her tongue out and patting Francie on the head. 

---  
**Sydney's Cabin**

"Well here it is!" Rob said, fifteen minutes later as he parked outside a medium sized cabin. "Francie, your cabin is that one right over there," he pointed to the cabin closest to Sydney's.

Five minutes later, all their bags had been unloaded next to Sydney's cabin and Rob had given them both a package of papers that had the camper's schedules and what was planned for the upcoming weeks. Once Francie and Sydney had explored both of their cabins (only to find out that they were exactly the same) they started to unpack.

Sydney looked at her new watch and realized that soon Vaughn would be arriving. He told her that he would leave about an hour and a half after her. Rob had said that it was normal for the counselors to arrive earlier than what was required, just so they could get a look at the camp and set up their cabins. He also mentioned that two of the other counselors had already come.

Sydney walked around her cabin admiring all of the little things that made the cabin look uniquely 'camp-like'. There were _many_ names engraved on the bunk beds that were lined up against the walls, the couch looked well-used, and when she looked up on the ceiling she found that someone had written 'gullible' in permanent marker.

She opened up her suitcase and pulled it over to the counselor's bed. It was the only bed in the room that didn't have a bunk over it. It had a large space beneath it where she could put her suitcases and beside it she also had a dresser, like all the other beds. She began to unpack her first bag. She filled the first couple drawers with her clothes, and then moved on to her other one. She placed all of her little trinkets that Marshall had made for her in one drawer under her clothes.

The sun had already set and the darkness of the night had set in. She peeked out the window and saw that Francie was busy decorating her room. _I should be setting up..._ She pulled out some sheets and her blankets and quickly made her bed. She fluffed her pillow and lay it nicely down at the head of her bed. She smiled with satisfaction and then moved to the corkboard that was by the door. It had a laminated sheet of paper tacked to it, entitled 'RULES'. It looked like it had been taken down and tacked back up about fifty times because it had so many holes on the corners of it. 

She put up a couple more sheets of paper, including the list of her campers names, a daily schedule of what the campers were to do, and the list of what she and the other counselors were going to be doing the next two weeks.

Sydney read through the names of all her campers; Stephanie, Megan, Amy, Lauren, Anne, Skye, Amber, and Kara. _Easy enough to memorize..._ she said to herself. She unpacked the rest of her bags and decided to take a stroll through the camp to wear off some of her excitement. She wrote a note and set it on her bed, just in case Francie wandered over to her cabin.

The sky was dark, but there was still a small glow that enabled her to find her way around the camp. Luckily for her, there were signs that pointed her in the direction of the lake, which she later found out, wasn't too far away from her cabin.

The dock stretched out about twenty to thirty feet on the lake. A couple of ripples appeared in the water as Sydney padded out to the end of it. She plopped down and took off her socks and shoes, then slowly dipped her feet into the cool water. The breezy night air gently blew her hair across her face. The camp was everything she imagined it would be... The only thing missing was Vaughn.

She was overjoyed at the fact that she would be at the camp with Vaughn, but she also knew if they didn't talk _soon_ the awkwardness between them would defeat her. She would probably end up jumping on him. And at that thought, she couldn't help but smile. But she also knew that he was _very_ cautious of the CIA rules, and probably didn't have enough nerve to do anything about _his_ feelings for _her_.

Vaughn did have feelings for her, and she knew it very well. It was just an unspoken thing between the two of them that probably would never be brought up again. He had told her that he wasn't able to sleep when she was on missions, that all he wanted to do when she was talking was to kiss her... But, there was always something stopping them every time they tried to talk.

They had stood across from each other in the midst of the rubble she used to call SD-6. She couldn't take her eyes off of him, and he seemed to have his eyes permanently glued to her. They both knew what was going to happen if no one interrupted them... She started to take a step toward him, taking in a large breath of air. He followed suit, but right as they reached ten feet from each other, Weiss came bounding in between them.

"We did it," he had said breathlessly. Once he'd left, they stood awkwardly until Sydney excused herself. _Almost..._

Evidently Vaughn talked to Weiss after the little incident, because that was when he started teasing the two of them.

Sydney swished her feet around in the water slowly, enjoying the silence of the lake. 

_Ring, ring, ring..._

She pulled her feet out of the water and answered her cell phone. "Yeah?" she asked, hoping that it was Vaughn.

"Nice view, isn't it?" his voice came through.

"You're here," she said with a smile. She looked up at the shore to see Vaughn leaning up against a large tree, holding his cell phone to his ear.

Sydney stood up and slipped her shoes on. _Maybe there is a chance..._


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five **

"_Mr. Vaughn," Jack said briskly, taking a step forward and standing by Vaughn. "May I have a word?"_

Vaughn's eyes quickly darted around the rotunda. He quickly spotted Weiss not far away, holding a book in front of his face. It would have fooled him except for the fact that the book was upside-down, and the last 'book' Weiss read, was a Sport's Illustrated magazine.

"Uh, sure," he said, wiping the sweat that was starting to form on his chin.

Jack led him to an empty conference room and pulled out a chair. He gestured for Vaughn to sit down, then folded his arms across his chest and put the all too well known 'Bristow Glare' into full effect. "I suppose you know why we're here," he stated tersely.

You want to give me a promotion?_ Vaughn sardonically thought to himself. "Um, no Sir," he responded, trying to avoid Jack's probing eyes._

"You're going to be on a three month long mission with **my** daughter," he said in a low voice. "I just would like to ...warn you, that if you lay a **hand** on my daughter, I will not hesitate to relieve you of your job."

"Yes Sir," he said obediently, wondering why Jack hadn't already done so.

"Thank you for your cooperation," he said briskly, then walked out of the room.

---

The distance between them seemed to grow longer as Sydney slowly made her way toward him. He stood by the tree until she got within a couple feet of him. He put his cell phone in the pocket of his shorts and smiled. She followed suit and turned her cell phone off and looked up at him.

"Hi, my name is Vaughn Bennett," he said with a grin.

_I certainly wasn't expecting that..._ she laughed to herself.

"Sydney Parker," she said, shaking his outstretched hand with a wide smile.

Vaughn took out a pen and clicked it. "We've got thirty minutes," he said in an animated voice.

_For what?_ A little voice in her head asked. She secretly hoped that it had nothing to do with the mission.

"Shall we?" he said, walking out onto the dock.

She nodded and followed him out to the end where she'd been moments before. They sat down, causing more ripples to appear on the surface of the quiet lake. Vaughn took off his sandals and stuck his feet into the water and let out a long sigh.

"Long car ride?" Sydney spoke up with a nervous laugh. She crossed her legs and leaned back on the palms of her hands. The light smell of Vaughn's cologne was drifting her way and she wasn't sure how long she could go without kissing him.

"You have no idea," he shook his head. "Weiss kept calling me..."

"It's better than riding with Francie," Sydney scoffed. "She made me listen to a Michael Jackson CD for the last hour of the drive."

"That I'd have to agree with..." he rolled his eyes.

"I mean, it was _one_ CD! She put it on repeat... _over_ and _over_..." she placed her hands to her forehead and let out a small cry of agony. "I still have a headache from it, too."

Vaughn patted her back lightly. "It'll be okay, Syd. Next time she turns it on I'll accidentally break it, okay?"

Sydney nodded happily. "Sounds good to me!" she said with a smile. She lay back on the dock and looked up at the sky. The moon was shining brightly and she could see a few stars glowing. She couldn't think of anything to say, and evidently he couldn't either. The silence of the night had settled in between them and the imminent awkwardness was starting to creep in.

"So, uh..." he started to say slowly.

She looked up at him, knowing where this conversation would lead. She sat up and looked him straight in the eye. "Yeah?" she whispered. Her heart was beating faster and faster as time seemed to stand still. _Say something, say something, say something..._

"After we took down SD-6, I wanted to tell you something..." he said, taking a deep breath. "And, before that I-I didn't get the chance because we kept getting interrupted."

She thought of how they were interrupted by Weiss both times he had tried to talk to her. She often wondered if he didn't want the two of them together. Vaughn took the moment of silence to scoot a little bit closer to her. "What I said was true," he said ardently, looking into her deep brown eyes.

_"All I want to do is kiss you..."_

"Obviously this is nothing new to you, but... I just wanted to clarify-" he paused for a moment, "..._despite_ rule number five," he added, "I do have feelings for you."

Sydney watched him intently for a moment. His eyes were shining brightly and she could tell that this was something he had been waiting to tell her for a very long time. She continued to gaze at him, their bodies seeming to inch closer together as they sat on the edge of the dock. Vaughn took in a deep breath and finished his speech, "Feelings... that I shouldn't have."

He stopped talking and watched her with an anxious expression on his face, waiting for her reaction. She didn't know how to react though. For almost a year she'd had feelings for him but never expected anything to come from it. The relationship she had planned in her head seemed to be anything but reality, yet there they were...

They both sat in the calmness of the night, gazing into each other's eyes. Sydney could feel his hot breath against her face. She leaned forward a slight bit, her lips burning to touch his. She closed her eyes and mentally prepared herself for her first kiss with Michael Vaughn, when...

Footsteps could be heard from the pathway leading to the lake, causing the two of them to jump back from one another. "Hey!" Francie's voice floated over to them.

Sydney stood up and jogged to the shore, Vaughn following closely behind. "Hey Fran," she said with a teasing smirk.

"I got your note..." she mumbled in some unintelligible lingo, her eyes wandering off to the man that had walked up behind Sydney.

"So I see," she nodded. Vaughn cleared his throat and stood next to Sydney. "Fran, this is Vaughn Bennett, he just arrived here at camp too," she said with a flighty smile.

"Hey," Francie said, shaking his hand. "I'm Francie Calfo. You can call me Fran, though."

Vaughn smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Francie," he informed her. "I was just getting to know your friend Sydney here," he said politely, shaking her hand in return.

"Can I steal her for just a quick second?" Francie said in a squirrelly voice. Once Vaughn agreed, she pulled Sydney out of his hearing range. She couldn't see Francie _too_ well because of the darkness of the night and the fact that they were standing in the shadow of an oak tree, but she knew that her smile was bigger than it had ever been before. 

"Look, I know what you're thinking -" Sydney started to say.

"Ah, ah, ah... We've gone through this before, you don't have ESP," she mock scolded with a waggle of her index finger.

"Okay," Sydney rolled her eyes. "What?"

"What do you mean, 'what?'," she squealed. "Are you crazy! Forget about that _Michael_ guy and go for Vaughn! This guy is actually interested in you!"

"As much as I'd _love_ to throw myself at a complete stranger," Sydney joked, "I'd rather not get kicked out of the camp. You know, there such things as camp _rules_."

"Actually, unlike you, I _have_ a life so I didn't memorize the whole rule book."

"Gee, thanks."

Francie laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I'm just saying he was giving you 'The Look'."

"What look?" Sydney asked incredulously.

"You know, 'The Look'."

"No I don't know, now what did you come here for in the first place?" Sydney asked impatiently, eager to get their topic onto something that didn't involve a rule book, a hot man, or 'The Look', said hot man was evidently giving her. She didn't know why she was trying to hide her newly found 'relationship' from her best friend, but she assumed that Francie would freak out if she all of the sudden started dating this man she'd apparently only known for about thirty minutes.

"Well, I _was_ going to show you how I decorated my cabin, and that we should probably be getting to sleep soon. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow!"

"Doing what, exactly?" she asked.

"Well, for one I'd like to see if one of us can flirt enough with Rob to get him to let us take a four-wheeler driving test." she said with a sneaky grin. "I'm really not looking forward to walking all day long. _And_ we're going to go explore the entire camp before the rest of the counselors get here."

"Okay," Sydney shook her head. "I don't know how you find the will or the brain power to do all of that in a day, but whatever. I'll go say goodnight to Vaughn for us."

Francie giggled and started to walk away. "Don't forget to give him a goodnight kiss!" she snickered.

---  
**The next day - meeting the rest of the counselors.**

"I'm nervous, are you nervous?" Francie asked anxiously.

"A little bit," Sydney nodded. They were seated on the hood of Sydney's car, waiting for the rest of the camp counselors to show up. The majority of their morning was spent exploring the enormous camp, then trying to manipulate Rob into letting them take their driving test early. Needless to say, Rob was easily controlled and they no longer had to walk everywhere.

"Here comes Mr. Hottie," Francie announced, nudging Sydney in the ribs.

Sydney turned her head back to the office building and noticed that Vaughn was heading over to them. He wore a pair of loose jeans and a dark blue t-shirt, along with a pair of sunglasses on the top of his head. Sydney immediately recognized the sunglasses as the ones that Marshall made for them.

"Hey," he greeted. "How'd you guys get a four-wheeler already?"

Francie blushed and cleared her throat. "We, uh... had some extra time this morning."

"Uh huh, sure," he cocked his eyebrow. "And I had to walk the whole way here?"

Sydney shrugged and let out a yawn. "Man, I'm already tired." She lay back on the hood of her car and put her hands behind her head. "What time are the other counselors-" she stopped, letting out another yawn, "...supposed to be here?"

Vaughn checked his watch and looked around the parking lot. "Ten, maybe fifteen minutes. I know a lot have had to go check in."

---

Three hours, a close call with crashing the four-wheeler, and many introductions later, Sydney, Vaughn, and Francie were all seated on the dock with their feet in the water, along with two other counselors. Their names were Scott Miller, and his close friend Eli Bolt. They were both twenty-six years old, and like Sydney and Francie, they'd decided to spend their summer as counselors at Camp Liberty.

Among the duration of three hours, they also met Jessica Anderson, Pete Ward, Liz Howe, Jon Teare, Renée Williams, Grace Flynn, Patrick Cook, Kate Lloyd, Matt Jones, Beth Flutin, and Jim Peterson. Frank, the camp director, filled all of them in on the basics of the camp. The counselors would be separated into four different groups with four leaders in them, in which they would use for night games and various other activities.

Sydney, Francie, Scott, and Vaughn were luckily all in one group, and they were called "Board Games". It struck Sydney as an odd name for a group, until she found out why. Included with the many games, the counselors all were told to choose a 'fake name' that matched their group theme. It was supposed to be a fun experience for the kids to try to guess each counselor's _real_ name.

Each cabin would compile the names up over the summer, and whichever cabin got the most names, was able to choose two counselors to either throw water balloons at, or push into the lake. Needless to say, Sydney was _thrilled_.

Francie decided on "Candy Land", Sydney chose "Monopoly", Vaughn opted for "Trouble", and their new friend Scott selected "Cranium". The other group themes were "Kitchen Appliances", "Animal Names," and "Cars." Derived from those themes came the names "Fork," "Spoon," "Bowl," "Spatula," "Ewe," "Moose," "Squirrel," "Monkey," "Toyota," "Dodge," "Jeep," and "Mustang."

Francie had gotten up from the dock and excused herself, telling Sydney and Vaughn that she had to use the bathroom. She left, giving Sydney a wink.

They sat in silence, waiting for the right words to say to magically pop into their minds. Sydney sat, trying to keep her mind on anything _but_ kissing him, and how close they'd gotten the night before. "Syd," he suddenly said.

"I know," she said, shaking her head. "Look, you don't have to--"

"No, its not that," he said, holding up his hand. "I think I know who one of them is."

"One of who?" she asked with wide eyes.

"One of the terrorists."


End file.
